Converting tea gardens into housing plots
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Since tea gardens with a commanding view of the hills and valleys were preferred by the customers and developers, the rates per acre multiplied several times
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More takers: Houses overlooking a tea garden near Udhagamandalam.
Though the recession and the global economic slowdown has brought about marked changes in transactions relating to real estate in big and small cities, there doesn’t seem to be any change in the Nilgiris in the way customers are looking for properties or the hard bargaining by the sellers or their agents.
With a large number of people from outside the Nilgiris particularly Chennai and Andhra Pradesh showing an interest a few years ago in putting up cottages or palatial bungalows in scenic parts of the Blue Mountains, a real estate boom was triggered especially in places like Kotagiri, which has for long enjoyed the reputation of being a small, quaint and quiet hill station.
Since tea gardens with a commanding view of the hills and valleys were preferred by the customers and developers, the rates per acre multiplied several times.
Cashing in on the demand many planters sold their tea estates resulting in concrete structures mushrooming. The recession and growing concern among conservationists notwithstanding, the trend has not changed.
While the planters who got fancy prices describe it as an unexpected windfall which has helped change their lifestyle, many senior citizens feel that an unhealthy practice has been set in motion and in the long run the local people would be affected.
While on the one hand guest houses will proliferate, on the other houses will be put beyond the reach of the local middle and lower middle class families.
The landscape, which was gradually being altered, would do irreparable damage to the reputation of the hill station.
With things looking up on the tea front, some have even started questioning the wisdom of selling tea estates to developers.
For the past several years construction activities here are governed by a Master Plan and building rules which stipulate that structures should be put up only in approved areas and clearance should be obtained from the local body and various agencies like the Geo-tech cell.
However, they have neither dissuaded people from putting up constructions nor brought down the prices of real estate.
Areas even on the outskirts of the town where the rate per cent was about Rs. 60,000 about a couple of years ago are now going for Rs. 1.5 lakh to Rs. 2 lakh.
There is also a good demand for old bungalows particularly those in the middle of tea gardens.
D.Radhakrishnan,
Udhagamandalam
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